Saturday, May 21, 2005

Debating the rebate

The whole debate is to put in the context over the disputes on the EU budget, Barroso said that he was highly disappointed by the proposition of EU member states, and therefore opened fires on the EU budget battle. The Times reports that Senhor Barroso believes that "a good solution can be found if there is goodwill on all sides. I think British taxpayers will understand that the rebate has to go if people have the courage to explain that it is not fair for Bulgarians and Romanians to be paying more than the British. This is obviously not the opinion of Dr Liam Fox, shadow Foreign Secretary, reported in the Independent that 'there must be no question of any change to the rebate. The Prime Minister should never have let this come on to the agenda. The rebate was hard-won by Margaret Thatcher and saves British taxpayers billions of pounds a year.'' Even if Britain is highly isolated at the moment, Blair can certainly counts on a failure of the renegotiation process. A weakened France after a victory of the No and a victory of the Yes in Britain will bring a more positive environment to arm-twist the Commission. Moreover, Blair (or Brown) as a President of the Council, will have all the tools in his hand to defend the British rebate.